Buggy Apps Killing Your Smartphone Battery

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Sick of watching your battery icon seemingly go as fast as a
stoplight from green to yellow to red? It could well be all the
apps you have installed — even the ones you aren’t using.

A team of researchers at Purdue University released a study to
TechNewsDaily that thoroughly examines what dozens of popular
apps are doing on Android phones, and what many of them are doing
wrong. (Though the study was only on Google's Android operating
system, the researchers say that they can do the same for Apple's
iOS and Microsoft's Windows phone operating systems.)

Apps turn on parts of the phone, such as the processor, the GPS
or the camera, when they need them, which is normal. But by
digging into the code of apps, the researchers often found what
they call "no-sleep energy bugs," mistakes in the program that
fail to turn the components off when they are done. Unlike
computers, which are often plugged in and "awake" most of the
time, smartphones try whenever possible to be in a "sleep" mode
to save precious battery life. But buggy apps defeat the purpose.
[ How
to Improve Android Smartphone Battery Life ]

The apps you download aren't the only culprits; many that are
part of the Android operating system are overtaxing the hardware.
Culprits include the native email program, Google Maps, the
Android backup service and, ironically, the power manager that is
meant to conserve battery life. The preinstalled Facebook app
also overuses the phone's battery. Most of these problem apps,
the Purdue researchers say, were previously unknown.
(TechNewsDaily has contacted both Google and Apple to get their
reactions and will report what they reply.)

Some downloads were also culprits. For instance, K9Mail, a
popular alternative to the built-in email client, overuses the
battery. TechNewsDaily contacted Brad Spirrison, of app review
and recommendation site Appolicious, to ask what they have
observed. "Anecdotally, it is true that [Android devices]
typically drain more battery life due to those issues," he said.
"Beyond bugs, many users don't even know when multiple apps or
programs are running, thus draining their phones." [ Smartphone
App Use Soars ]

You can find out fairly easily. From the home screen on an
Android phone (or tablet), click the menu button, then Settings.
From the menu, tap Applications, then Manage Applications. And
finally, tap the Running button at the top of the screen. You'll
see what's running, and what you probably don't need. You can
kill an app by tapping on it and then selecting Force Stop.